Thread: TR: Keep on Rockin on Top of the Free World (Mt. Shasta, July 2-4 2011)

Date: July 2-4, 2011

Location: A big volcano in Northern California

Weather: Clear sky, endless sun, freezing nights and no wind. None.

Conditions:
Above 10K', among of the smoothest buttery corn I've skied anywhere.
Below 9K', gloppy suncuppy junk, but still skiable to 6,900'.

Freedom Fighters: Schralph, MapleLeafGillies, snowranger

Photos: Schralph and MapleLeafGillies

Music: Neil - Rockin in the Free World

Keep on Rockin on Top of the Free World (Mt. Shasta, July 2-4 2011)

I shouted to MapleLeafGillies above the Bob Seger track that, while blasting across the room, dimly masked the squeals and shouts of girls throwing their bottoms left and right. The girls were faintly outlined by just the glow of a laptop screen and two Petzl headlamps blinking in safety mode. Grad student improvisation of deejay and lighting equipment at its finest.

"I'M GOING HOME MAN! SEE YOU AT 6:30 AM!"

It was 11 PM and Canada Day had just one hour left on the West Coast but Gillies and his entourage of Canuck sympathizers kept the Molson flowing for at least 3 more hours. Heck of a way to head into a high-elevation ski touring trip.

By noon on Saturday we arrived at Mt. Shasta city, where the townspeople were preparing for a different national holiday.





We wandered the reveling town for a bit, seeking bits of grease and grain to soak up the liquor still pulsing in Gillies's arteries. We got directions to the trailhead from a colorful local.





As we figured it would be this weekend, the Bunny Flat trailhead was a zoo. Cars wedged up against the sides of the road leading up to the full parking lot. There we met a couple with ice axes dangling from their packs' axe loops, spikes hitting their calfs. They crossed the parking lot to the bathrooms with crampons affixed to their boots, not even needed for the afternoon snow conditions. The wife strapped a flimsy daypack to the back of her overstuffed main pack (so stuffed some of the compression straps could not close), which had none of its suspension adjusted properly, throwing off her balance. The husband's pack had broken lash points for webbing, giving him no way of securing his axe spike-up against his pack. They had never used any of the gear before, had no mountain or navigational experience, and hoped to reach the summit. I readjusted their axes and packs so that they could at least walk, gave them the weather report and wished them luck. We finally got moving on the trail with our own great alpine start at 3:30 PM.





I shouldn't have been so hasty to criticize the naive couple - though carrying no real luxuries, my pack was almost the same size as my own scrawny frame.





Naturally, these heavy packs caused a few, er, "travel difficulties."





Especially when forgetting to switch my boots to ski mode on a short pitch that we skied down to camp.





But we made it to where we needed to go, about 3 miles and 2,500' feet up from the trailhead. We camped in Hidden Valley, where we saw only two other parties (one is visible in the bottom left of the image). We laughed about what a stark contrast this site probably was, to the Gong Show of parties that must have been filling in at Helen Lake on the main route.





The forecast called for 65 mph gusts at 12,000 feet on Sunday so we made fortifications to our camp in preparation ...





... as the sun was setting over Hidden Valley.





But as the sun and moon dipped behind the Klamath Mountains, the valley stayed serene. Very serene.





After dinner we stared up at a very dark night sky.





All we were missing at camp was HAL9000.





The next day the wind never materialized but we slept in and kept it lazy anyway, skiing near the camp. snowranger harvested smooth corn with his tele gear because I was borrowing his real touring skis.





And MapleLeafGillies enjoyed the meadow skippy stuff because it was so dang smoove!





Gillies recharged his sleep deficit from Friday night ...





... and then we went up for another lap ...





... of something steeper.





The snow held up so well late in the day that we went up for another beautiful ski and then went to bed at sunset for the summit day on Monday.





We got moving at 5:15 AM after a good night's rest, but a confused morning perplexed by how our bag of coconut, berry, peanut, raisin oatmeal had disappeared from camp. We eventually figured out that crows had stolen it the afternoon before and we settled for CLIF bars and gorp for breakfast.





The freeze was so strong on Sunday night that front-pointing was nearly ineffective, so we ascended all of the 4,000' to the top of the West Face via diagonal switchbacks. Partway up, we watched the shadow of the mountain appear in the sky as we kept pace on the climb.





Just shy of 13,300', quite a ways up from the town at 3,600'.





Finally at the last little pitch. No one had yet bothered to mention to the summit block that it was July 4, and that mid-winter coat of rime was quite unfashionable this time of year.





As I stepped over the last pitch to the summit, I shut out the feeling of the quarter-sized blister that ripped off my heel during the skin to camp with the heavy pack. Another great argument to tell to my snobby Dynafit friends while they relentlessy heckle me during a splitboard transition.





Gillies noticed that the summit register started on June 26. Do the rangers seriously change this thing every 2 weeks during the summer?





It's America's birthday today?





Every birthday deserves a good birthday party, especially at 14,179'. Red, white and blue!





Ian from Truckee brought his delicious melons to the party and shared them with everyone.





Keep on Rockin on Top of the Free World! (Yeah, it's pretty much obligatory for me now)





Enough tomfoolery, let's ski from the summit!





A lot of snow on the Whitney Glacier, maybe that bergie is huckable?





Smooth surf turns down the entire West Face were enjoyed by MapleLeafGillies and snowranger.







I had a great ride in the backseat as well. Maybe next year I'll get my learner's permit and graduate to the driver's seat.





After a great ski down to Hidden Valley, we packed up camp and skied the rest of the descent all the way to the car. It wasn't glamorous, in fact it was quite sucky: a long traversing, heavily suncupped exit with tight turns and a heavy pack. But a 7,300' continuous ski descent isn't anything to complain about at all.





We devoured a pizza at the Boardwalk Cafe, and then I got devoured by the Sacramento Valley insect swarms on the way home. Somebody PLEASE change the damn metal halide light fixtures!




Well, that's pretty much it.

Happy Birthday, Amerika!

way to be true americans

Good stuff!

Me like Shasta TR's !

So

fucking

jealous

Nice work guys!

Excellent!

The dynafiddle boots may have caused a blister, but booting all that rock hard ice in snow board boots?

Nice TR. The "Ia n Out" sticker is solid

Nicely done old mate!

Loving this pic...

Superb stoke Shralp! Shasta looks $$$$

I shouldn't have been so hasty to criticize the naive couple - though carrying no real luxuries, my pack was almost the same size as my own scrawny frame.

Considering we thought we were going to Eastside until the last minute, we packed pretty light all considering. Froze my a$$ off at night though.

I had a great ride in the backseat as well. Maybe next year I'll get my learner's permit and graduate to the driver's seat.

Dude, you're killing it for the first year out. Keep it up!



Gotta put in a plug for BD whippets. First time using one on terra firma, and it was awesome. They gave great security on the way up. Never felt like I needed an ice axe, and definitely helped when I got cliffed out with my heavy pack on the way out of hidden valley. I should have gotten some pictures, but was a bit gripped. There was no way to ski out of there with that load and wet slides kept coming from above. Yeah, I was thinking about skiing off but there was no good place to put those f**king tele skis on and get some air to clear the rocks below. So I pitched my pack and skis over the cliff and hucked off to a nearby wind lip using the whippet to arrest. Good times.

Damn Schralph! I'd about hung it up for the season but this little bit of inspiration has changed things for sure! Thanks for a great TR!

Originally Posted by hutash

booting all that rock hard ice in snow board boots?

Yeah, I guess sidestepping with snowboard boots & cramps is a bit more effort than hardboots - a lot more ankle rolling etc. I haven't heard too many complaints from the veteran splitbooters though, whereas I regularly hear about blister complaints from my skier buddies. My heel still has a fat scab on it 2 weeks later! Next time I'll try duct tape if carrying fat weight. I hope those BD boots break in a little more, I spent good money on those things!

Originally Posted by bcrider

Superb stoke Shralp! Shasta looks $$$$

Thanks, no crap for doing it on two planks instead of one? Next time I'll snowboard it

I just wanted a chance to try out this new fangled dynafiddle technology and a few more days on skis this year. If I get a new split this summer I might mess around with my old (current) one to try out a dynafit toepiece / plate binding setup.

Originally Posted by snowranger

Considering we thought we were going to Eastside until the last minute, we packed pretty light all considering. Froze my a$$ off at night though.

YOU packed pretty light. I didn't, and was sitting warm and cush in my down booties, fleece tights under my pants, Montbell down jacket and 0 degree Phantom bag! Next time I'll bring 3 lenses and a tripod so that I can get my pack weight up to 50% of my body weight

+++++++++++++++++++++

Ah great stuff - and this goes to show, you never do quite know what you'll find at the summit... Mmmm delicious melons....

Nice work! I will once again give you heat for ridiculous sized packs!!!! Having said that, I am extremely jealous (and hence poking fun at you).

Nicely done using A.T.gear. Really enjoyed reading this trip report "one of the best this season" and the pics look professional.The bar has been set high this summer season...

1. dude, you're still knuckle-dragging that right arm!
2. you left out 2 K's in Amerika (it's Amerikkka, dammit!)
3. mucho mondo grande props to the trio: good show blokes!

PS
What UCL said, too (at least the latter part, because as Sammy Davis, Jr. said "The day your friends stop making fun of you is the day they stop loving you" or something like that).

Looks nice. Gives me a headache just looking at it.

me gusta mucho
damn fine shasta tr

Originally Posted by SchralphMacchio

Good stuff, guys.
I noticed something in your pics that my eyes couldn't understand, Alex.
I know you usually borrow skis but, how the hell did you start out on one pair of skis and then have a different pair further up the mountain?

Pat, that dude is about 5-6 inches taller than me! I actually didn't really notice that Gillies and I wore pretty much exactly the same stuff on the way in. We both had similar tan hats with neck flap, blue shirts, and gray shorts!

Like matching Hawaiian shirts...
Now that you mention it, I can tell the dif in your packs, but those angles don't show a size dif.
That's what I get for posting before my third cup of coffee.

nice TR, looks corntastic to say the least!

Seconding 666 and Splitters quoted pictures. Two of the best I have seen posted on here in a while. Most people will never see things like that. Exactly what I needed this morning.